Nate Diaz has departed from a Russian reality show he was participating in alongside Jon Jones in Thailand.
The well-known UFC fighter traveled for the filming of a series resembling The Ultimate Fighter, where he served as a coach with Jones. However, the production quickly devolved into chaos, leading to Diaz`s exit and return to California. His long-time friend and teammate, Jake Shields, was also part of the filming and documented the bizarre events as they unfolded, even before the show officially commenced.
Additional sources confirmed on Wednesday that Diaz left the production and went home following a major physical altercation that broke out between some show contestants and members of Diaz`s team.
Representatives for Diaz were not available to provide comment on the situation.
In a video shared on YouTube, Shields described the entire production as disorganized from their arrival in Thailand. He stated the primary conflict began when one of the competing fighters confronted Diaz during introductions.
The footage provided by Shields shows a Russian fighter first speaking to Jones, then approaching Diaz. It appeared the fighter attempted to grab Diaz, who immediately pushed him away.
Moments later, the situation rapidly escalated into a physical confrontation between Diaz and the fighter. Shields narrated, “Nate went and slapped him.” The fight fully ignited when a member of Diaz’s team punched the fighter.
Shields claimed that instead of removing the disruptive fighter from the show, he was allowed to return to the same area, which resulted in another melee. Shields stated he became involved this time, tackling the fighter who originally confronted Diaz.
Shields recounted, “Right when I started to go off on him, I got just blitzed from the side. Not where the fighters were, a couple of guys just started blitzing me, which to me seemed like they were crew working there, not fighters because the fighters were in the chairs.”
He added, “To me it was very clear that it was the staff and the workers. That was one of those moments where’s like I better diffuse the situation.”
After the fighting was broken up, Shields said the “chaos” persisted. This led to Diaz`s entire team deciding to leave the premises and withdraw from the show.
Shields further explained that the production team eventually attempted to find a way to get Diaz and his team to return. However, by that point, everyone involved was mentally finished with the experience and ready to go home.
Explaining their decision, Shields stated, “Why are we going to go back and film a show — it’s one thing to be fighting the fighters, that’s why I went out there with Nate, I thought it was a possibility some of these fighters will try to test him — but when you have potentially the crew hitting you, too it’s like no, f*ck that.”
A few days later, Diaz and his whole team flew back to California, bringing the reality show venture in Thailand to an abrupt conclusion.
